Parents have shared their stories for NICU Awareness Month

     

Today marks the beginning of NICU Awareness Month, an initiative that was first launched by Project Sweet Peas.

We wanted to join the campaign to help raise awareness of what life is like for parents with babies who are either born too soon, or born full term but poorly and requiring a stay in the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit. We created a survey and put a call out to mums and dads and an incredible 243 parents responded and shared their stories.

We cannot comprehend what it must be like to visit your child in the hospital and in the most serious cases, watch as they fight for their lives each day. Only the parents of these babies really know what it's like and we are grateful that so many would share their personal experiences to help raise awareness of NICU life, create a clearer understanding and ultimately help to improve the neonatal journey for future families.

One of the questions we asked parents was, "What was the hardest thing about your time in the unit?" Savanagh's baby boy was born at 38 weeks gestation and spent one month in the NICU, she told us:

"Seeing my baby with tubes coming out of everywhere and not being able to help him and make him better myself, me thinking he was going to die before his life even started."

How distressing for a mother to feel this way. We'll be sharing powerful words like those from Savanagh, throughout the month to highlight what so many families go through in those first few days and weeks of their babies' life. You can follow along via our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages.

Thank you once again to all those who have responded and helped to shape this campaign of awareness.